Background
He was born in Boston on February 23, 1844 the son of Archibald D. and Fannie (Richards) Babcock, and a direct descendant of early Puritan settlers.
He was born in Boston on February 23, 1844 the son of Archibald D. and Fannie (Richards) Babcock, and a direct descendant of early Puritan settlers.
He attended the English High School and was a student in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard in 1860-61.
He then established a private office and laboratory in his native city. Later (1869 - 74) he served as professor of medical chemistry in the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy; then for six years in a similar position at Boston University. During this latter period his work on alcoholic beverages was begun and it was this work as state assayer of liquors (1875 - 85), together with his later attention to the milk problem of Boston, which made him celebrated as a chemist.
Babcock is credited with having brought about the introduction into the Massachusetts Statutes of the "three percent limit" as defining an intoxicating liquor. As city inspector of milk he established rigid enforcement of the laws against the adulteration of milk and other dairy products; his methods finding favor in other cities. That he possessed some versatility is shown by the fact that he was a skilful analyst, a recognized investigator, a public lecturer, and the inventor of the Babcock fire-extinguisher.
With the exception of official reports concerning pure foods and sanitation he wrote only an article, "Blood Stains, " which appeared in Hamilton's Legal Medicine, and a brochure entitled Laboratory Talks on Infant Foods (1896). His interest in medicines and drugs appears to have been continuous, for in later life (1894) we find him president of the Druggists' Association of Boston.
He was twice married: on Marсh 28, 1869, to Mary Crosby of Boston, who died in 1890; and on August 24, 1892, to Marion Alden, also of Boston.
